Onima brings Mykonos to Mayfair

27th December 2018

New Mediterranean-Asian luxury restaurant, Onima, opens in Mayfair.

In London for New Year's Eve? Candid's Thomas Falkenstedt has found a gem to spend it at if you're lacking plans. It is well worth a visit after NYE as well. Having opened its doors on 1 November, Onima is one of London's new hot spots for culinary experience.

Cartier's former empire

Once the headquarters of Cartier's watchmaking empire, this five-floor historic townhouse in London's Mayfair is now Onima. It’s a place that invites you to take it easy during the day and then seduces you into evenings of sensory pleasure — every dramatic experience providing a heady backdrop to the magic on the table. New Year's Eve promises to bring along some extra flair. Skilfully reimagined by leading Greek interior designers Archset, the sensory experience begins as you walk through the door and into the ground-floor restaurant. Polished, stylish and flooded with natural light, the space is dominated by an imposing bar with sumptuous bronze details. Here you can lounge on comfortable velvet-clad armchairs and sofas, surrounded by a regularly changing art collection that reflects the city’s state-of-mind.

Singular vision

Having opened 1 November, this ambitious hybrid of bar, restaurant, private lounge and rooftop terrace is the singular vision of founder, Alexandros Andrianopoulos. Managing legends such as Nammos and Interni, he helped create a vibe that saw Mykonos become one of the world’s most sought-after destinations, before building success internationally for the likes of NYC’s Bathtub Gin and Bagatelle in Dubai.

Satisfying and sublime

If you're still in doubt regarding your NYE plans, take another look. The glamorous and luxurious Onima, a Mediterranean-Asian restaurant, is a bar and a private dining space. Born in the heart of Mayfair, London, it exists for the city’s most discerning pleasure-seekers and brings together great food, unique service, a positive energy and strong personality. An elegant amalgam of Mediterranean and Asian flavours lives at the heart of Onima’s superlative menu. Satisfying and sublime signatures include beef tartare with orange ponzu sauce, heritage tomatoes and celery; king crab salad with seaweed and caviar dressed with yuzu, spring onion and truffle and pineapple carpaccio with cardamom, star anise and coconut panna cotta.

Unrivalled offering

Onima’s cocktail collection – spearheaded by the likes of Purple Rain, a beguiling blend of mezcal and grapefruit, cardamom, prickly pear, aquafaba and soda – mirrors this culinary coupling, effortlessly merging the familiar with more far-flung ingredients. Head up to the first floor and you will fall for a sleeker and sultrier facet of Onima’s character. Here, the design team has combined American walnut, burnished metals and fabrics in varying shades of blue, whilst colourful mirrors multiply the sense of space. But Onima’s unrivalled offering doesn’t end there. Over the next few months this unique social hub will also launch a luxuriously appointed private lounge complete with imposing fireplace and the pièce de résistance – a stunning glass-enclosed rooftop terrace that will allow you to tower over Mayfair, admiring the sun, the clouds and the stars. Onima is sure to become a go-to destination for languid lunches, afterwork drinks, late night revelry and everything in between, It will set the benchmark for entertaining in the city. This is a legendary place to spend New Year's Eve. See more for yourself on Onima's website. Onima, 1-3 Avery Row, Mayfair, London W1K 4AJ Follow Candid Magazine on Instagram here.